


Fire

by gillywulf



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Missing Scene, Post Book 3, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 08:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3026651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillywulf/pseuds/gillywulf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fire doesn't bother Asami.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire

Korra scrambled backwards, her eyes never leaving Zaheer as he stalked towards her. She could feel her breath coming in quick pants and the sweat pouring down her face. But no, this was wrong. Why wasn't she in the Avatar state? She was in the Avatar state when she fought him. He raised his hand to his face and crushed it between his fingers. His skin fell away like rotting tigerdillo meat from bone to reveal Amon's mask. Korra's panic only increased.  
  
"No, no, no, stay away from me!" She blasted him with fire, but he easily evaded it. Korra swore she felt her heart stop. His hand moved upwards again, tearing at Zaheer's shirt this time. From the whole emerged a dark shape. Half a second later, she realized it to be Vaatu. Breathing was no longer an option. She couldn't do this.

She collapsed against the ground, sobbing loudly and uncaring that the people who had proved to be her greatest adversaries were there to laugh at her humiliation. She didn't care if the situation didn't make sense any more, it never did. She watched as one of Vaatu's tendrils turned into a ghost of herself, poisoned and crazed in the Avatar state. She loomed over her, her posture slumping and her face unreadable. Korra couldn't see her eyes, but she was sure that they were staring down her nose at the fallen Avatar.  
  
"You are, and have always been _worthless_ " she hissed.  
  
"Korra!" Korra jolted awake with a gasping breath to the darkness of her room. Soft hands were touching her shoulders, arms, and face, but she couldn't look anywhere but at the ceiling, for fear that if she did look, the hands would be attached to another enemy.  
  
"Korra, you're okay, you're at Air Temple Island. You're safe" She didn't know who was talking. She didn't care. Her hands grasped uselessly at the sheets under her as she attempted to come back to the present. The sudden sensation of cool cloth on her forehead did the trick. She blinked and found Asami looming over her, instead of the specter. Her expression was concerned and unguarded.  
  
"Asami" Korra breathed. She disentangled one of her hands from the bedspread and clutched Asami's bicep, the closest lifeline.  
  
"I'm here. I'm always here for you" For a long time they sat in the darkness, trying to calm the injured Avatar. The routine was an unwelcome one, but after Korra's near brush with death during her fight with Zaheer, it was a necessary one. She needed to get better and no one wanted to help her more than Asami. The engineer would sleep in just the next room over, her ears attuned to any sound from her friend's room. Korra might have been bothered by it if it were anyone else.

Yes, she felt things for Asami, but she didn't feel like she could act on it in her current state. She couldn't even walk, for goodness-sake. She felt Asami dab at her forehead again and she let her eyes absently track the movement. Asami's hands were splotchy and angry red with tiny welts all over the skin. Those had not been there when they'd gone to bed.  
  
"What happened to your hands?" she asked, taking Asami's wrist for a better look.  
  
"It's nothing-"  
  
"Don't give me that. I'm not stupid" Asami's answer came after hesitation.  
  
"You used firebending in your nightmare. I was a little bit too close. It's fine, really"  
  
"No, that's not okay. Come here, I'll heal that for you"  
  
"Korra-"  
  
"Asami, please" Her voice cracked over the words and Asami gave in. She perched herself on the edge of the bed and turned to face Korra, her hands on her lap. The Avatar pulled the water from the drinking glass on her bedside table and formed it around her hands. Once they were glowing, she took Asami's bunt hands and attempted to fix them. The silence might have been uncomfortable if it were someone else, but instead it was fine for both of them. Neither minded sitting quietly in each others company, even if Korra was fresh from a nightmare and burning her best friend's hands. Asami broke it.  
  
"You know, after my mom died, I thought I would always be afraid of fire. A firebender killed her, if you didn't know. I thought that I could never sit by a fireplace or go to a probending match or light the stove without running away. I thought it would be involuntary. Turns out it wasn't. My first encounter with fire after she-" The pause was conspicuous and Korra didn't know what Asami's point was, but she let her go.

"My father took me to the track and a racer exploded, burst into flames and I wasn't scared at all. I looked at it and didn't see my mother dying inside. My dad couldn't go anywhere near it. I remember it, he was frozen. He just stared at it like...He probably saw her. That's probably why he was so angry about Mako. Well, one of the reasons anyway. I'm not afraid of fire. I should be, but I'm not" Her eyes lifted from her healing hands to Korra's.

"A little fire isn't going to get in the way of me getting to you, not ever" Korra wondered if Asami could feel the fire in her eyes, and if she didn't, what she would think to know it was there. Would she be afraid then? To know she could never escape it? No, probably not. Asami's healed hands slipped from her own.  
  
"Thank you"  
  
"You shouldn't thank me, I hurt you"  
  
"You should start to hear the words 'thank you' more often. It'll do you wonders. Goodnight Korra. Let me know if you need anything"  
  
"Goodnight Asami"


End file.
